The Pike Brewing Company – Seattle, Washington

Right next to one of the most iconic scenes in Seattle is the brewery near Pike’s Place Market. It’s a pretty snazzy joint, with contemporary gastropub styled décor, a ton of space, and pretty decent brews. Go with the darker ales like the Scottish and something with fish in it and you should be pretty set.

Original Review

There may be no better way to spend a few hours after roaming the culinary delight that is Pike’s Place Market than sitting with a brew mere yards away from the chaos.

Located in the heart of downtown Seattle, less than a five-minute walk from the famous Pikes Place Market, sits this brewpub on the bay. The restaurant/brewery shares a gigantic building with several other stores making it more of a mall setting. You walk down a flight of stairs to get from the stores to the beer. There are barely any televisions, and the ones there are difficult to see, making this place a terrible spot to catch a game. Otherwise, the bright neon lights and general cool vibe score very high marks. After all, they never claimed to be a sports bar.

The food is fairly expensive, although probably not for downtown Seattle. I ordered a salmon burger (after all, this is Seattle) but it was extremely disappointing. The fish had very little flavor and the toppings did nothing to help out. The accompanying fries and coleslaw were good, but again, nothing outstanding. However, what saved this place was the seafood chowder. Real, big chunks of crab make this one of the better soups I’ve come across.

The beer was very good across the board but none were outstanding. Everything was hopped correctly. Nothing was overly bitter. Everything was flavorful. The Scotch may have been a bit sweet, the blonde a bit bland and the XXXXXX Stout may have been a bit, well, okay that one was wonderful. I would also recommend the Tandem.

One bartender was completely overwhelmed by a mass of thirsty people right after I sat down at the bar. She worked her ass off to get them drinks while trying to attend to a full seated bar as well. I didn’t get any service for about 45 minutes, but I can’t blame her. The fact that she gave me a free bowl of chowder certainly didn’t hurt either. She finally got the line beat, and that’s when management decided to send some help. Go figure.